The E/Mail

       The e/mail said, "Open Immediately".  When I opened it, it was from me, but from a few years forward, January 9th, 2016, my 55th birthday!  I was writing to everybody in the United States whom I knew.  By then, I knew a lot of people.  I was telling them all about my intentions to finally stay indefinitely in the State of Israel.  I had finally come over a few months earlier, after missing my opportunity to go on a family trip to Israel for my 50th birthday.  So this time was it!  
        I had left the United States last summer, to begin a supposedly temporarily stay in Israel, for the High Holidays.  However, the experience was so surreal and spiritual, that I keep on extending my Visa.  Finally, I just created my Visa, so that I could stay in Israel for an indefinitely period of time.  Israel is one of the few countries that you can choose to become a citizen of, and not lose your United States citizenship, so I knew that if I was unhappy, and things did not work out as I had planned, or had envisioned, I could return to New York.  I mean I liked New York, but the frustrations from all the years had finally gotten to me, and I needed a change, a slower pace of life.      While Jerusalem, the city I was going to be staying in, was a large urban center, it certainly did not compare to the monstrosity of New York.  I truly hoped that the changed of environment would calm me down, and change my outlook.  I had always had a Zionist feeling in my heart and soul.  This had come from when I was a child, but unfortunately, life had taken a different turn, and I could not return to Israel.  I had been here for my Sweet 16, oh so many years ago!
      I was going to take the bull by the horns, and start a new life for myself.  A lot had been done in developing an excellent mental health care system in Israel.  I had been involved in a lot of its formation, but it was from thousands of miles away, and many bodies of water.      Now finally, off of the El Al plane, and onto the streets of Jerusalem, it was a virtual reality.  I would be living in Jerusalem, in the New City, but close enough to the Old City to frequent it often, to see the sites and particularly the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, the holiest place in all of Judaism.  I would be able to partake in the activities of the Women of the Wall, a group of women who wanted to be included, to have prayers services of their own.  Professionally, if you will, I would be working on the advancement of mental health in Israel.  There would now be three clubhouses in Israel, each advocating for those in need with mental illness.  They were inclusive, because there were Arabs as active members in some of these clubhouses.